OpenAI

Table of contents

Use GPT-4o, GPT-5, GPT-5-mini, and other OpenAI models with docker-agent.

Setup

# Set your API key
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

Configuration

Inline

agents:
  root:
    model: openai/gpt-5

Named Model

models:
  gpt:
    provider: openai
    model: gpt-5
    temperature: 0.7
    max_tokens: 4000

Available Models

Model	Best For
`gpt-5`	Most capable, complex reasoning
`gpt-5-mini`	Fast, cost-effective, good reasoning
`gpt-4o`	Multimodal, balanced performance
`gpt-4o-mini`	Cheapest, fast for simple tasks

Find more model names at modelnames.ai or in the official OpenAI docs.

Thinking Budget

OpenAI reasoning models (o-series, gpt-5, gpt-5-mini) support extended thinking through the reasoning_effort API parameter. Set thinking_budget to control the effort level:

models:
  gpt-thinker:
    provider: openai
    model: gpt-5-mini
    thinking_budget: high   # minimal | low | medium | high | xhigh

Effort levels:

Level	Description
`none`	Don't request extra reasoning (alias for `0`); the API's own default still applies.
`minimal`	Fastest; lightest reasoning pass.
`low`	Quick reasoning for straightforward tasks.
`medium`	Balanced default.
`high`	More thorough; recommended for complex tasks.
`xhigh`	Near-maximum effort; slower but most accurate.

These are the only values OpenAI accepts — token counts, max, adaptive, and adaptive/<effort> are rejected with a configuration error at request time. Older models (o1, o3-mini) only accept low/medium/high.

Warning
Hidden reasoning tokens
OpenAI reasoning models always produce hidden reasoning tokens that count against max_tokens — even with thinking_budget: none. docker-agent automatically raises the output-token floor for its internal low-effort calls so reasoning cannot starve visible text output.

See the Thinking / Reasoning guide for a cross-provider overview.

Tip
Custom endpoints
Use base_url for proxies and OpenAI-compatible services. See Custom Providers for full setup.

Custom Endpoint

Use base_url to connect to OpenAI-compatible APIs:

models:
  custom:
    provider: openai
    model: gpt-5-mini
    base_url: https://your-proxy.example.com/v1

WebSocket Transport

For OpenAI Responses API models (gpt-4.1+, o-series, gpt-5), you can use WebSocket streaming instead of the default SSE (Server-Sent Events):

models:
  fast-gpt:
    provider: openai
    model: gpt-4.1
    provider_opts:
      transport: websocket  # Use WebSocket instead of SSE

Benefits

~40% faster for workflows with 20+ tool calls
Persistent connection reduces per-turn overhead
Server-side caching of connection state
Automatic fallback to SSE if WebSocket fails

Requirements

Only works with Responses API models: gpt-4.1+, o1, o3, o4, gpt-5
NOT compatible with the --models-gateway flag (automatically falls back to SSE when a gateway is configured)
Requires OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable

Example

See examples/websocket_transport.yaml for a complete example.

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OpenAI